But yes they are exciting.and at the moment I am getting ready to work on a much later chapter of DAC that involves Daala, Mara and Angel. It may or may involve Vader but he and the Emperor will be in it.

Luke Skywalker slowly and carefully made his way through the corridors of the city in the clouds with R2 faithfully at his heels.

He wanted more than anything to hurry to his friends’ aid, sensing their fear, but he had quickly realized that R2 wouldn’t be able to keep up with him and forced himself to keep his pace slow. It helped that he felt that something was wrong here. He knew the second he had walked in and found the corridors deserted that this was a trap. Such a large facility should be teeming with beings. He had no desire to be surprised by something after that small ship did a barrel roll at him on his way in. The pilot had felt familiar but he couldn’t place where he had felt that presence before.

He could sense that Ana, Chewie and Han were here somewhere in the seeming maze of corridors. He also knew that something else was here as well. It was like a shadow, waiting to engulf him.

Suddenly he sensed multiple living things nearby. Quickly he pulled back and waited for them to pass by. It didn’t take long. Luke started around the corner, but no sooner did he start to move from his hiding place, than an armored figure appeared and began firing a blaster at him.

Quickly Luke slid back behind the wall until he heard and felt the assailant leave. Luke hurried after him in hopes that the mystery man would lead him to his missing friends.

As he rounded another corner, more shots were fired at him; this time by storm troopers. “No Luke, run!” Ana’s voice cried out. “Lord Vader’s here!” He could here Chewie barking ‘run’ and him as well.

A storm trooper threw something in his general direction and Luke instinctively pulled back behind the wall as smoke filled the junction.

There was another blaster shot before they stopped all together.

Luke waited with annoyance for the smoke to clear. Every second counted and he could feel them getting further and further away. A minute or so later the smoke in the junction cleared enough for Luke to confirm that his friends were indeed gone. Frustration filled him; He had let the Imperials get away.

Luke entered the junction and looked around. There were three ways to go. One would take him the way that Ana and Chewie had come from. The other two would take him to other parts of the city but he was not sure which one to take

Carefully he reached out with the Force and jerked his head towards a dark doorway. The Dark Presence that he had sensed was that way. He could only think of two beings that might feel like that and they were Lord and Lady Vader. But which one? Luke reached out and smiled: Lord Vader.

Vader is here! I could avenge my father. I could rescue Ana, Chewie and Han but we might not escape. Besides Han wasn’t with them so he has to be here somewhere. Luke thought as he stepped into the open area and headed for a door. If I destroy Vader now, I can still rescue my friends. Without Vader to command the troops, they could probably even free themselves from their captors.

Luke headed for the dark doorway.

The area was dark and there was only a tube lift. Luke paused for a moment before he slipped into the lift tube. The lift took him to a dark chamber that didn’t look anything like the rest of the city. There was bare metal everywhere and exposed machinery. He had a bad feeling about the whole situation as the hatch slid shut behind him. The bad feeling grew worse as he heard the sounds of the lift sliding further downward. Definitely a trap. My blaster isn’t going to do me any good. Vader’s close, he thought.

As if the thought summoned him, the lights came on in the chamber. Luke turned and saw the black figure of the fallen Jedi standing on a raised platform. “The Force is with you, young Skywalker. But you are not a Jedi yet.” Lord Vader stated flatly.

Luke felt his anger rise at the words that his nemesis had spoken. I will show that traitorous scum that I am a force to be reckoned with. He thought as he approached the stairs to the platform and ascended them. I may not be a Jedi yet but I will make him regret joining the Dark Side.

He slipped his blaster back into its holster and reached for his father’s lightsaber, igniting it as he brought it up. He saw something flicker in the Sith’s eyes but it was gone before Luke could place the emotion. When the Sith Lord ignited his own lightsaber Luke turned his attention to the fight that was to come.

He paused to gather himself before attacking. He needed the Force to be with him.

This is for you Father! Luke thought silently.

xxxxxxxx

Ana struggled to not bite the insides of her lips or cheeks. She was afraid what her fate would be and she didn’t want to show the Imperials or Lando that fear. She had no idea what was going to happen to her or Chewie. Lando hadn’t really said - not that she would trust his word anymore anyway - and Lord Vader hadn’t really volunteered any information about what was to be their fate.

She felt her throat constrict at the thought of Luke heading right into the elder Vader’s trap.

Suddenly she realized that security officers were surrounding them and Lando was throwing the Imperial officer in charge towards one of his own officers. She watched as Lando quickly pulled the stormtroopers’ blasters from them. “Hold them in the Security Tower and keep it quiet.” Lando whispered to his cyborg second.

Ana’s mouth opened slightly as Lando started to work on Chewbacca’s cuffs.

“What are you doing?” she asked, puzzled.

“We need to get out of here.” Lando simply said.

“I couldn’t agree more.” 3PO commented.

“Can we even trust you?” Ana asked as the cuffs suddenly came undone as Chewie ripped his hands apart.

Ana watched in shock as Chewie grabbed Lando by the throat.

“I didn’t have a choice!” Lando gasped out.

“Let him go!” 3PO wailed, “Oh, I hate violence!”

“You always have a choice.” Ana said, ignoring 3PO’s cries.

“I was responsible for the safety of others.” Lando said weakly.

Ana bit her lip. She had failed to protect Alderaan from destruction because of a few careless choices. Lando seemed to be in that escape pod.

“You said something about helping.” Ana said after a moment of silence.

“We can still help Han.” Lando whispered hoarsely. “The third East Platform.”

“Hurry Chewie!” Ana cried as she raced off down a side corridor. She heard Chewie ruff that he was behind her as Lando took in a gasping breath.

Lando cursed softly as Slave I flew off with Han on board. He was furious. This was all his fault. He should have been more careful, should have fought harder, or at the very least planned this coup better. But the Dark Lord of the Sith hadn’t volunteered much information except that he was looking for someone named ‘Skywalker’ and that a ship was heading for Bespin that had people close to him aboard.

Lando was surprised that they knew of the connection until he saw Boba Fett.

He remembered the anger that Lady Vader had shown when he had said Han’s name when they were discussing the best way to reveal their presence. Lando had casually mentioned that Han and Chewbacca would never turn down free food. She had demanded to know if Han used to be in the Imperial Military. Lando had answered yes simply because he knew that it would be futile to lie to her. You would have thought that she and Han had known each other by her near violent reaction.

“Oh no, Chewie! Behind you!” The protocol droid crying out was enough to shake him out of his thoughts.

Several stormtroopers were off to the side and shooting at them.

They dodged blaster bolts as they raced away, heading for the Falcon this time. As they hurried off, he wondered where they had picked up an astromech and where had it come from. The Princess didn’t seem to be worried; in fact she seemed to know it so it must be connected to her in some way. He could ask later. Right now he had more pressing things on his mind.

xxxxxxxx

Lord Vader smiled under his face veil, Luke was better trained than he had previously thought. But his style of fighting was not quite what he had expected from someone trained by Obi-Wan. The boy seemed to be learning on the fly, copying Vader's own style, as though he had never fought with a lightsaber before. Was Luke trained or was he just a fast learner?

What puzzled him more was the animosity that his son had towards him. It wasn’t just a feeling of betrayal. It was eerily similar to the hatred he had for the Tusken Raiders of Tatooine. Was it because of the death of Luke’s aunt and uncle? If the anger was over Owen and Beru’s deaths, had he known that the trail led to their farm he would have questioned them himself and they would probably be alive today. Was it because he had killed Luke’s mentor, Obi-Wan? If that was the case then Luke needed to be told that it was the old man’s fault that he died. Vader decided that he’d ask his son a few things later. If the duel continued long enough he would get it out of him sooner, if not, he would question him on Coruscant. “You have learned much young one,” he commented with a hint of pride.

“You’ll find that I’m full of surprises,” his son pronounced with conviction. Vader snorted; his son was as a cocky as he used to be. Vader knew of only one remedy for that; a flurry of blows and a twist of his wrist later and he knocked his old lightsaber from Luke’s hand. It fell to the level below.

Before the boy could consider calling the blade back to himself, Vader slashed his lightsaber at Luke and the boy rolled down the stairs to avoid the blade, never realizing that Vader intended to miss him anyway. His son had good reflexes. He did wonder though if it was training or instinct.

Vader turned and jumped into the air, landing where Luke had been just a few moments before. He found himself comparing Luke and his little angel. She wouldn’t have allowed herself to be so unaware of her environment. She would have been more careful and would have jumped down the stairs instead of rolling down them. She would have had her lightsaber back by now. Or she would have been fighting with her shoto if she was in the same situation that Luke was now in.

He mentally shook his head. Clearly Luke had not been training for as long as his Angel, but surely Obi-Wan must have taught him something. Luke had at least known to let the Force guide him. Vader pointed his lightsaber at Luke. “Your destiny lies with me young one; Obi-Wan knew this well.” he informed his son.

“No,” the boy whispered, his tone full of horrified rejection and anger.

Vader reached out and prepared the pit for the freezing process. If his son failed this test, at least Luke would stay out of trouble until Vader could train him properly. He slowly advanced until the pit was behind Luke. Vader mentally shook his head. Angel would never have been so careless. Even if Obi-Wan had only trained Luke for a few week how could the boy have thought that he could match a fully trained Sith Lord? The Obi-Wan he knew would have warned the boy away from such a choice.

He moved his lightsaber in Luke’s direction and the boy took one too many steps backward and fell into the pit. He wondered idly how long Luke would have lasted if he hadn’t been testing the boy. Not long at all. “All too easy, no challenge at all.” He commented to himself in disappointment as he flicked his fingers at the controls.

A ripple in the Force had him turning back to the pit, trying to identify the source. “Perhaps we were mistaken about the strength of the power you wield.” he mused out loud.

A noise above him had him looking up into the hoses and other pieces of the equipment that helped with different parts of the carbon freezing process. Luke clung to one of the hoses as if it was a jungle vine.

“Impressive!” he breathed. This was something that Luke couldn’t have learned on the barren wastes of Tatooine. Someone had been teaching him. The question was who though. He slashed his lightsaber half-heartedly at Luke. Luke just climbed higher and the lightsaber went through one of the hoses anyway. “Most impressive.” He commented sarcastically. He wondered if Luke had expected the hoses to be cut and counted on the resulting cloud of vapor to hide his movements. He suspected Luke had not thought that far ahead.

Vader watched as Luke flipped his body so that he could drop to the ground. The boy then took the damaged hose that was spitting out gaseous carbonite and directed its new head at him. He cried out as the cold gas hit him and backed away. He’s smarter than I gave him credit for, he thought as Luke used the Force to retrieve the lightsaber that had once belonged to him many years ago.

“You have been taught well and know how to control your fear. But you must release your anger. Only your hatred will destroy me!” he goaded his son.

Luke just scowled and pressed his attack. Vader smiled as he backed up; he had planned for this possibility and allowed himself to fall backwards off the side of the platform. Once that was done he hurried away; knowing that Luke was going to follow.

Luke did not disappoint.

Angel would have been much more cautious, he thought as Luke searched the room with the Force. Let’s see how far your knowledge of the Force goes. He then proceeded to use the Force to throw things at Luke.

You disappoint me once again. Even a half-trained Jedi should be able to throw them back with the Force or at least slice them apart or deflect them. He and Luke briefly crossed blades before he threw a few more crates at Luke. The boy moved and one of the crates smashed into the window, breaking it.

The wind blew hard, threatening to suck them out. He used to Force to activate the magnets in his artificial feet and boots. Luke, on the other hand, was yanked out the window.

Vader moved slowly to the broken window and peered below, noting that Luke had grabbed a pitten walk before he could fall to his death. Let’s finish this. I wonder what Obi-Wan told him of my fate. Nothing good, I think. Maybe I can use it to my advantage.

xxxxxxxx

Ana shook slightly as she fled with Lando, Chewie, and R2 from the storm troopers. They had lost the storm troopers a short time ago but that could change at any moment. “The Security Code’s been changed!” Lando groaned as he accessed a panel.

“R2, tell the computer to override the security system and hurry!” 3PO told the droid.

Ana kept an eye on things as Lando made a citywide announcement to flee. Her attention returned to R2 as he made a high-pitched squealing noise as the power socket he had tried to access jolted his entire system and Chewie pulled the droid away.

“Let’s get going!” Lando said as he continued towards the Falcon through the now available door.

Ana followed right after him.

A few minutes later they came to the door that would take them to the platform where the Falcon was docked. The door refused to open. Could their luck get any worse? R2 got right to work opening the door as the stamp of stormtrooper boots began to approach.

She was dimly aware of 3PO yelling at R2, but she heard the door slide open just before the stormtroopers rounded the corner. Ana waited a moment longer, hoping to see Luke sprint around the corner just ahead of blaster fire, but she didn’t resist when Lando gently grabbed her elbow and urged her into a run.

They paused only a few times to shoot at their pursuers as they raced to the Falcon. Miraculously, they reached the gangplank unscathed and fled up it. Once they were on board they bolted for the cockpit to lift off before the stormtroopers managed to shoot anything important.

xxxxxxxx

Luke followed his instincts to where he felt Lord Vader. It led him into a structure. His senses were overwhelmed with feelings of danger, but he couldn’t see the danger.

Vader suddenly appeared from the shadows with his lightsaber ignited; Luke barely had time to ignite his own to block the attack that had come. He’s stronger than I thought. I was a fool to think that I could defeat him in combat, he thought as Vader pushed him back. I should have listened to Yoda. Luke stumbled and almost fell backward.

Luke felt a wave of anger strengthen him and pressed his attack. He swung his lightsaber and it grazed Vader’s right forearm; some sparks flew and Vader hissed in annoyance.

The hit didn’t slow the Sith though. He just pressed his attack.

Luke quickly backed onto a narrow beam. The Sith Lord couldn’t follow him there without the possibility of both of them falling. Perhaps that would hold him at bay. Their lightsabers locked a few times before Vader moved his lightsaber and sliced at him.

Luke cried out as he felt Vader’s lightsaber burn his right forearm. He nearly collapsed in pain and barely noticed his lightsaber falling into the abyss below him; Vader called it to his left hand before it could fall too far.

Luke watched in quiet fury as Vader almost seemed to caress the hilt of Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber and there was something that looked like fondness in his eyes as he clipped the weapon to his belt.

“There is no escape; but I would rather not destroy you.” The Sith hissed in dark overtones. Luke moved as carefully as he could away from the towering dark figure. “Luke, you do not yet realize what you can do. You have only begun to tap into your power. Join me and I will complete your training. With our combined strength we can end this destructive conflict and restore peace to the Galaxy!” Lord Vader offered.

“I’ll never join you!” Luke gritted out as he moved away from his enemy.

“If you only knew the power of the Dark Side!” the Sith cajoled. Luke watched him warily, waiting for the Sith to continue. “Obi-Wan never told you what happened to you father; did he?” Vader asked, nearly conversationally.

Luke was confused for a moment at the sudden change in Vader’s tone, but a moment later anger gripped him. That vile creature is acting as if he had nothing to do with my Father’s demise! Too bad for him I already know. Luke thought. The thought led immediately to an angry retort. “He told me enough!” Luke cried out. “He told me that you killed him!”

Lord Vader’s eyes turned from their icy blue to poisonous yellow then back to blue. “No,” he said softly as he reached for his face veil that, unlike the Sith’s hood, had somehow managed to stay in its place the whole fight. “I am your father.” he pronounced calmly as he lowered the piece of fabric.

Luke felt horror grip him as he stared at a face that he knew nearly as well as his own; even though burn scars marred it: the face of his father.

No mask? Is he dressed like a Tusken? Did Lucien inspire you? Or is it still my mind in the grip of the flue that put me down for an entire week!

Click to expand...

Vader in this is suitless. The idea came from original concepts of Vader.

I wanted Vader to be suitless for this but keep his former identity a secret. So the face veil hides his identity as Anakin but also looks menacing. Imagine a demon in black and all you can see is either icy blue eyes or poisonous yellow ones.

ccp I'm glad you thought the last chapter was awesomegeno well, let's see if things get even more interestingHazel thank you!Nyota's Heart thank you!AzureAngel2 glad you think so.charmedjedi if you are still reading you have missed an update

This is has FINALLY been updated! I want to thank everyone for their patience and support.

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Luke dangled in midair from a weather vane underneath the large city. It had felt like hours since he had landed there but in reality it could have only been a few minutes. His head was still reeling from Vader’s revelation and offer.

“Ben, please!” Luke whispered softly, hoping that his old mentor could somehow help him. There was nothing.

Someone, please help me! Han, Ana! He called out in the Force. He thought he felt something but he couldn’t be sure. All he could do was hold on and wait for someone to come and pray that it wasn’t Lord Vader.

The mere thought that Lord Darth Vader was really his father was shocking. His whole world had just been turned upside down and shaken. How could he trust anything he had been told. Was Skywalker really his last name or had someone decided to give it to him? Was his whole life a lie?

Luke mentally tried to explain away why Vader would look like Anakin Skywalker. There were nano droids that could be used to alter someone’s facial features but Luke didn’t know much about them and he doubted that Vader would want the face of a Jedi for his own for any length of time. Lord Vader’s eyes had always either been blue or a yellow color but other than that no one knew what he looked like. He could have been Anakin Skywalker’s identical twin seeing that the Sith was taller than Anakin Skywalker but what he kept coming back to was the fact that the Force told him that Vader had spoken the truth.

Luke tried to think of something else as he waited for someone to come to his aid. It was easier than trying to come to terms with what he had just learned. How long had he been hanging here? Minutes? Hours? He had already lost track of when he landed on the vane and when he had called for help. But there seemed to be very little else to distract his distressed mind.

In the moment that it took Luke to form that thought he heard the roar of a ship's engines.

Luke looked and saw a ship flying towards him. It looked familiar but he couldn't immediately place where he had seen it before. The ship's hatch opened as the ship flipped on the side so that the hatch was right underneath him.

Luke reached out and found a single, vaguely familiar Presence on board that wasn't Han or one of his friends. But whoever it was didn't seem to have any ill intent towards him. He guessed that whoever it was must have heard his call for help.

Luke released his grip on the vane and dropped into the ship.

The second he was in, the hatch closed and the ship righted itself in one smooth motion before taking off.

Luke stood and stumbled in what he hoped was the right way to the cockpit. After a moment Luke arrived and found that the pilot was a familiar looking brown haired human female, but again, he couldn’t remember where he had seen her before.

"Strap in, we're going to enter hyperspace once we leave the planetary atmosphere," she told him.

Luke quickly took the co-pilot seat and strapped in the best he could with the pain in his right arm.

A few moments after he had finished strapping in, they exited the atmosphere of the gas giant and the woman started to prepare for a jump to Hyperspace. She was clearly a skilled pilot and comfortable enough with her ship that she must have had it for some time.

"May I ask where we are going?" Luke asked; hoping that the answer wasn't Coruscant.

"Naboo," the woman answered.

Naboo wasn’t much better than Coruscant in Luke’s opinion but at least Naboo was a peaceful world and didn’t have a big Imperial presence. It should be easy for his friends to get in and rescue him if things got too hot.

Luke could feel exhaustion seep into his awareness. The duel coupled with the revelations and the disturbing thoughts had taken a harder toll on him then he had realized.

“If you are going to fall asleep there is a cabin through the second door on the right.” The woman told him. “I’ll wake you when we arrive at Naboo in a few hours.”

Luke nodded and tried to stand but couldn’t quite get his legs to hold his weight.

He was surprised when the pilot appeared at his side and helped him to the door. She paused at the entrance and pressed a button that Luke hoped was for the ship wide intercom. “Hey Rustbucket, report to the second cabin and bring stuff for burns, cuts and bruises.” She snapped into it before she flipped it off; not even waiting for a reply.

Luke wasn’t sure if he wanted to be treated by a droid with nickname like that but the lightsaber burn was excruciating and he was almost desperate for something to dull the pain.

Once they were in the cabin, she helped him sit in a chair before she started to pull off his boots. A moment later it seemed the door slid open admitting an odd looking medical droid with bacta patches and some other medical equipment.

Luke barely paid the droid any attention as it cut away the right sleeve of his jacket.

He stayed awake as the droid tended to the burn and his other scrapes and bruises.

xxxxx

She left the room the moment she was sure that his injuries would be tended to. She had a story to concoct to prevent suspicion. Yes, she was the daughter of Lord Vader and second in line for the Imperial Throne, something she had been at times painfully aware of since she was ten years old. Until then she had just known that she was her father’s heir; it wasn’t until a failed assassination attempt on her life that she had learned just what it meant.

Slowly an idea formed in her mind. She had already ordered Rustbucket to take Luke’s measurements so she could pick up new clothes for him on Naboo.

Sighing, she picked up a datapad and started to read different reports from around the Empire and other places outside of the Empire’s reach. There was a report on the destruction of a smuggler’s base, several Imperial Ships had been damaged in a fight with pirates, a small time crime lord had been ousted on Crowla and would be tried for his crimes, the execution of some Rebel Prisoners, and a Lieutenant Enki Rosen had received minor burns while helping evacuate officers on the Defender.

She paused for a few moments and felt an idea come to her: she needed to have medical professionals treat that burn on Luke’s forearm. She could create a false report to get the burn treated.

She would need either an ensign or a lieutenant’s uniform. She couldn’t use the uniform she wore at times since not only would it never fit him but there was no way that she would be able to get it altered to fit him. However if she sent the measurements to her friend Mara and asked her to bring it to Naboo the facade could work; if the slightly younger girl didn’t blow a power coupling.

She decided that she wanted answers since her father revealed to her that Luke was her brother. Coupled with wanting to know just how much Han had betrayed her, she wanted - no needed to know the truth.

At that moment her datapad chirped to let her know that Rustbucket had gotten Luke’s measurements for new clothes. Now all she had to do was decide whether her brother was an Ensign or a Lieutenant.

xxxxx

Dressed in her Imperial Uniform with the rank bars of an Ensign, Mara Jade watched with some trepidation as the Shadow Angel flew into Lady Vader’s private Hangar Bay in Theed; the capital city of Naboo.

Lady Vader had sent her a cryptic message a few hours ago asking for her to meet the older girl on Naboo disguised as an Ensign and to bring a full Imperial Lieutenant’s uniform for a human male; Angel had even sent her the exact measurements. The curiosity alone had assured that Mara would meet Angel as soon as she was free to do so. Fortunately, Mara had finished her assignment an hour before the arrival of the message and had received orders from the Emperor to relax for a few days before some party on Coruscant that was happening in about two weeks.

Cautiously reaching out with the Force, Mara sensed that her friend wasn’t alone on the Shadow Angel. The gangplank lowered but her friend didn’t descend and neither did the other presence; Mara took it as an invitation to board.

Mara had barely boarded when Angel appeared dressed in her Imperial uniform. Mara blinked; Angel rarely wore an Imperial uniform unless she wanted to pass as a normal Imperial to fish for information or to have some ‘normal’ interactions with officers.

“Are you alone?” Angel whispered.

Mara rolled her eyes; of course she was alone but something weird was going on.

“What in the name of the First Warriors is he doing on your ship? Why didn’t you take him to an Imperial Base, your father, Coruscant or, I don’t know, sell him at slave auction as a twi'lek dancing girl?” Mara demanded softly.

Angel’s face flicked briefly into an amused smile at the last suggestion before hardening with resolve.

“I want answers; answers that I feel I can get from him without revealing my allegiance,” the young woman stated. “I’ll figure out what to do with him after I get them.”

Mara hesitated; it was treasonous to not report Rebels but if Angel thought that Luke Skywalker could answer questions she had, then did Mara have a right to take that away from her friend? Besides as Lady Vader, second in line for the Imperial Throne, and a loyal servant of the Emperor the pair could bend the rules from time to time and not be considered traitors.

Mara followed Angel deeper into the ship until they reached the cabin where Mara Sensed the Rebel Luke Skywalker. She was prepared to sense an inconsistent nature, a man who, as with everyone else, held many layers. She expected to sense deception. In her experience, all creatures had vices hidden beneath the surface, some small, some large. Someone as powerful as Skywalker should be riddled with them, especially with all of those Rebels fawning on him as their supposed savior.

Look at Tarkin, the perfect example of military discipline and order, yet underneath the surface, he could be petty, wandering eyes and sometimes he was a little more cruel that he possibly should have been. But this was war and many Rebels didn’t care three Turu-grass blades about the citizens.

Even the Emperor, at times, felt as though he had hidden vices, and hidden agendas, though the impressions were so fleeting that she could never be sure she had really sensed them. But he had to enjoy inflicting pain since why would have he bound Angel and her father in such a way that if he so chose they could feel each other’s pain. More than once Mara had found Angel hiding in a closet with a thick piece of cloth to block her screams in her mouth and cuffs binding her hands to prevent her from accidentally hurting herself.

Angel palmed the door open to reveal the sleeping form of Luke Skywalker. Mara paused for a moment to take him in. She had known that he was around Angel’s age but it was still amazing that someone his age could be such a threat to the Empire. He looked very young and frail as he slept. She could sense more uncertainty and confusion in him than any other emotion. How could he have taken such decisive actions as he had at the Battle of Yavin? Yet under that uncertainty, she sensed a great resolve to do what he thought was right.

Slowly the Rebel sat up, but he still seemed to be half asleep or maybe he was still in the exosphere because of the pain meds flowing through his system.

How in the name of the First Warriors had Angel caught Skywalker? And why was she being so nice to him? What had changed? Or was it all an act to get Luke to talk? At least she finally knew who and what the male uniform was for.

“Here, Mara and I will help you into this uniform and then we’ll take a speeder to the medical center,” Angel said as she helped him to a chair. Mara quickly stepped forward to help assist her friend. It took them several minutes to help him don the uniform, but at last they were done with Angel carefully adjusting his rank bars.

“His hair is too long.” Mara whispered quickly when she saw that Angel was getting ready to place the uniform cap on Skywalker’s head.

Mara could tell that Angel either hadn’t thought of cutting Skywalker’s hair or had forgotten that they would need to cut it.

Angel disappeared for a moment and returned with hair cutting implements. Within a few minutes she had given Luke Skywalker a military haircut that many Imperial Officers had never dreamed of receiving.

Mara nodded once with satisfaction, earning a smile from Angel. With that they helped the Rebel to Mara’s speeder.

“What if they stop us?” Mara asked softly as they flew toward their destination.

Angel smiled determinedly.

“They won’t stop us but if they do . . .” Angel trailed off before she took her right hand off the steering yoke of the speeder, a gesture that many would find unnerving, and waved her fingers in the same fashion as a Mind Trick. “We know how to get around it.”

Mara smiled back deviously and returned the gesture. Both girls started to giggle.

As they approached the medical center, both Mara and Angel saw an Imperial Officer and a squad of stormtroopers standing next to the medical center ground access point.

Mara watched as Angel slowed the speeder until they stopped beside the officer that looked as if he had something to prove. She never liked officers that acted as if they had something to prove; they were usually worse than the average officer.

The officer almost sneered at them, something he wouldn’t be doing if he knew the identity of the driver of the speeder. “I need to see your identifications and your reasons for coming to the Theed Medical Center.” The officer more or less sneered at them.

Angel glowered at the officer but she retrieved an identification chip from a pouch on her belt before she leaned back to remove the identification chip she had made for Skywalker. Mara took her lead from Angel and reached into one of the pouches on her belt and retrieved one of her many identification chips; this one had her real name, a name she hadn’t used or thought about in several years: Jade Kryze.

“What’s his problem?” the officer asked as he scanned her, Skywalker’s and Angel’s identification chips.

“A flaming pipe connected with his right forearm. I was told to bring him here for further treatment and possible rehab.” Angel responded as she retrieved a datapad between the front seats.

The officer took the datapad from Angel in a bored manner and appeared to read the report on it. After a moment he reached towards his belt where his commlink was kept in a pouch.

It looked like they might need to use a Mind Trick after all.

xxxxxx

Luke had spent most of the trip to the medical center drifting in and out of a daze that the painkillers caused. He had been woken during the flight to Naboo by his rescuer and she had informed him that they were going to pretend to be Imperial officers to slip him into a medical facility since the Empire would be on alert.

He had been too out of it to ask her for her name let alone how she planned to pull it off. When they had landed on Naboo she had been joined by a red haired human or near human woman, Mara, both of them seemed to have access to Imperial uniforms and rank bars.

They could have gotten them on the Black Market he supposed since Han had said on more than one occasion that you would be surprised by what you could find on the Black Market.

The strange vision in the cave on Dagobah came back to him and how both Lord Vader and Lady Vader had had his face. What did that mean for him? Was Han right three years ago when he said Lady Vader was Lord Vader’s daughter?

The memory of Han’s words brought Luke’s thoughts to a surprised halt. No one besides Lord Vader and perhaps Lady Vader and the Emperor knew who Lady Vader really was and how she was related to Lord Vader. But Han had sounded so sure when he said that Lord and Lady Vader were father and daughter. How would Han know of any relation between the two? And if what Han said was the truth, what was she to him? Was she a half-sister or a full sister? He didn’t know his mother’s name or where she was from; all he knew was that his mother had died giving birth to him.

If Lord Vader was his father and Lady Vader was a full sibling to him the odds were good that they were twins since they appeared have been born around the same time. But if they were twins how had he ended up on Tatooine with his aunt and uncle while she had ended up on Coruscant with their father? He doubted that Lord Vader had sent him to live with the Larses; not unless it was to ensure that an heir to the Empire grew up safe. Or was it something more sinister: he had been abducted from either the medical center or from his cradle? But why had they taken just him and not his sister? Or had they taken her as well but they hadn’t either gotten far or she had been retrieved from the abductors? He thought he remembered hearing that Lady Vader had been given to Lord Vader so could she really be a replacement for him and his father came to see her as his own? But that clashed with what Han believed or knew.

Vader had offered him the chance to rule the galaxy with Lord and Lady Vader as father, daughter and son. Did that mean then that they were a family?

Was everyone keeping secrets from him? He felt as though he was going to explode with the questions and the horrible mix of anger, fear and confusion he felt.

Dimly he was aware of Mara and his rescuer talking but they were talking too softly for him to properly hear them. They had exchanged an odd wave and a giggle. He wondered what was so amusing.

He guessed it might be nerves or something.

The speeder had suddenly slowed to reveal an Imperial Officer and a small group of storm troopers. He wondered if it was some horrible twist of fate that they had been stopped by a real Imperial officer with real storm troopers. He feared that this was the end.

He was reaching for the Force to attempt a distraction of some kind when his rescuer lifted her right hand and waved her fingers at the officer.

“There’s nothing unusual here.” She said almost conversationally; not too different than what Ben had done when stormtroopers had stopped them when they had entered Mos Eisley three years ago.

The officer blinked. ”There’s nothing unusual here.” He repeated after her slowly; as if he was slightly dazed.

“We are loyal Imperial officers trying to get medical attention and evaluations.” His rescuer stated.

“You are loyal Imperial officers trying to get medical attention and evaluations.” The officer repeated flatly almost word for word.

“Sorry for the hold up, have a great day.” His rescuer continued.

“Sorry for the holdup Lieutenant Naberrie, Lieutenant Kemp and Ensign Kryze; I hope that you all have a great day.” The officer said politely as he handed back their ID Chips and a datapad.

“Thank you officer,” his rescuer said just as politely as she took the ID chips and ‘pad before she drove the speeder towards the medical center.

“That was close,” Mara whispered after they had gotten passed the officer and stormtroopers.

Luke straightened when he realized that his rescuer had used the Force to get passed the officer.

He had heard of the Empire’s Elite, sometimes known as the Emperor’s Elite, trained Force Sensitives in both the Force and with a lightsaber but they were few in number as far as he knew.

If his rescuer was Force Sensitive it would explain how she had found him but it didn’t explain why she hadn’t taken him straight to an Imperial Base.

The speeder came to a halt and the two women helped him out and into the medical center. At least he was able to help them guide him into the building.

“I need Suite 5-25-1977 prepared for a patient ASAP!” His rescuer called out as soon as they entered the lobby area. “Now!” the Force rang with authority. Almost immediately organic doctors and nurses were sent scurrying to fulfill her orders.

After a few moments, an alien nurse arrived with a hover chair which his companions carefully loaded him into.

“Orders have been relayed to Suite 5-25-1977. The droids should already be online and prepared to treat yousa’s friend milady.” The nurse spoke with an odd accent leaving Luke to wonder if Basic was her second language as she pushed the hover chair towards the Suite.

“Thank you Ki-Ka.” His rescuer said to the nurse.

“Your father here to?” Ki-Ka asked.

“No, Ki-Ka. He’s busy with other things.” She answered.

During the turbolift ride Ki-Ka and his unnamed rescuer exchanged a few words about some festival and when Ki-Ka’s wedding was. Mara, or at least that’s what he thought her name was asked why Imperials at the access road and wanted to see your ID. Ki-Ka responded that there had been rebel activity a few systems over and they were hoping to catch any Rebels that were hoping to seek medical treatment.

Both young women had made noises of acknowledgement.

Luke heard Ki-Ka wish that the war would end soon since it was claiming so many innocent lives and call the Rebels terrorists; suggesting that they should be put down like mad tusk cats.

Luke was grateful that they arrived at the medical suite before Ki-Ka could further give her views on the Rebellion.

He watched as the droids went to work treating his injuries before looking at his rescuer. “I don’t believe I thanked you for helping me milady.” He said through slightly gritted teeth.

“You are most certainly welcome Ensign Kemp.” She replied; using the false name she had assigned to him.

“Don’t mind Ki-Ka, she doesn’t mean what she said. Her older brother, Jin-Jin, was a doctor she admired very much.” His rescuer began. “He would give her advice and pointers for anything from medical school to making friends.”

“What happened to him?” Luke asked.

“Seven years ago the planet Crynoh IV was experiencing a series of terrible natural disasters. Help was needed to treat and possibly evacuate the entire populous. Jin-Jin volunteered to be on the first transport; the last time Ki-Ka saw him alive he was waving good bye from the boarding ramp. His transport failed to arrive at Crynoh IV and failed to respond to all hails. A team of troops was sent to investigate. They found the transport damaged everyone on board dead and the supplies were gone; stolen by either pirates or a small rebel group looking for an easy target carrying medical supplies, emergency gear and rations. The loss of the transport and the supplies lead to an estimate of at least the loss of three dozen lives and another estimated thousand faced permanent damage to their bodies.” She explained sadly.

“My boyfriend was one of the troops that learned the fate of Jin-Jin and helped with the humanitarian and evacuation efforts of Crynoh IV. He is on record to say that it was the most callous thing he had witnessed.” The Force shook a bit with anger and pain as she spoke.

Luke winced. He wasn’t sure if it was from the pain of his burn or the memory hearing stories from other rebels about their old teammates; back before the Rebel Alliance became a solid group. Of friends that lived to smash the heads of storm trooper heads together, who loved to make homemade bombs meant to do maximum damage, take shots at confused officers and attack off duty officers. One man spoke with horror of watching a former teammate nearly beat an officer to death for speaking to a glorified sex slave; the officer hadn’t even been looking for that kind of entertainment but had told her that she wasn’t allowed to ‘turn tricks’ on that street.

It was sombering to know that some members of the Rebellion weren’t any better than so many Imperial officers.

“I don’t think I know your name.” Luke told her as a 2-1B wrapped a bacta patch around his right forearm.

His rescuer smiled warmly.

“You may call me Angel; lots of beings call me that.” She answered.

“I have a friend in love with a girl he calls Angel. I think he misses her.” Luke commented.

There was a slight tremor in the Force.

Angel started to open her mouth to say something when she abruptly turned towards a locker, retrieved a pair of wrist cuffs and some sort of gag from it before hurrying into one of the side rooms.

“Is something wrong?” Luke asked; alarmed by Angel’s odd behavior.

“Depends on how you look at it.” Mara responded. “She will be okay in an hour or so.” Her tone implied that it really depended on your point of view on just how well Angel would be when it was over.

It seems I missed a lot in this thread. And when I went back to the beginning, I noticed, that you had to re-activate it, due to the problems the boards had, when moving texts. Anyway, still love the story, even though RL grants me less and less time to read wonderful ideas like yours.

Nyota's Heart teamwork is the best ways to get things done. And where Han is concerned is about ot get even murkier.

AzureAngel2 I'm glad that you still find my work enjoyable. I think I posted a link to FFNET so newcomers can get around the cutoff.

geno it's okay. Welll when you get an information dump like that I would think i would have to take a long timeout to figure it out.

Thank you all for the reviews and likes It brightens my day when I see them.

Just to clear things up, I know that at least one reviewer was confused, Luke didn’t lose his hand.

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The Rebel Fleet, secret location . . .

Princess Ana Organa forced herself to remain calm as she replayed the memory of searching for Luke underneath Cloud City. She had thought he had called out to her and that he was somehow under the floating city. Lando had helped direct them back to the city and where Luke might have come out despite his fears of Lord and Lady Vader.

They had arrived in time to see a ship racing away from under the city and making a break for orbit.

They had tried to hail the ship but they went unanswered and the ship disappeared into hyperspace before they could attempt a weapons lock. She had started to order Chewbacca to try to calculate the ship’s trajectory only for TIE Fighters to start firing on them.

They had barely escaped into the safety of hyperspace themselves.

Slowly she twisted her commlink, wondering if she should try to contact him. She had no idea if he was rescued by some stranger and just happened to be unable to call them or he was in the hands of the Empire or he might no longer have his commlink for reasons unknown.

Lando had told them that the ship hadn’t belonged to any of the Imperials and seeing that his treachery had to be known to the Empire he couldn’t return to Bespin to get more information about the owner of the ship.

Pter was already pouring through the Alliance’s files trying to identify the ship from their descriptions.

She had long ago sent C-3PO and R2-D2 to one of the Droid Maintenance areas leaving her alone in her quarters. She had briefed Mon Mothma, Admiral Ackbar, General Madine and other leaders on all the events that had transpired on Hoth and before the Falcon had arrived at the Fleet.

They all had been troubled by the fact that Luke was missing and some of the events at Bespin. She had told them everything she remembered both Lord and Lady Vader saying to them and how they had acted.

They had all looked at each other when she shared what Han had said when Lady Vader had asked him if he had any last words. His response still puzzled her along with Lady Vader’s reaction.

Ana was familiar with the Legend of the Starman and the Moon Goddess: one of the moon goddesses’ of some forgotten planet fell in love with a mortal that had turned his back to the Gods, he became a servant of the Gods before almost dying because of the Gods didn’t like the fact that an immortal was in love with a mere mortal who had turned his back to them for years. The Starman had been taken to the Realm of the Gods, healed of his wounds and he and the Moon Goddess confessed to each other how they felt, he became a God or something like one and married the Moon Goddess.

It was the kind of story a being probably would tell to their child at bedtime if the child didn’t want to be read ‘Blue Eggs and Barve Ham’ or the ‘Runaway Tusk Kit’.

Ana used to like to think of herself as an expert on Lady Vader since they had been forced to keep each other company at times when they were younger. It had been boring at times with Lady Vader wanting to play a version of SecForce and Thieves that entailed one of them being someone in authority and the other one being a traitor. The traitor had to do something bad and not get caught by the ‘SecForce’ one; she had never managed to evade Lady Vader in that game.

Not once had she seen what was under the veil but she knew that Lady Vader had brown hair. Lady Vader had allowed Ana to braid her hair when she heard Ana say she didn’t know how to braid hair. Lady Vader had even once brought a slightly older red hair girl to help show her some more complicated hairstyles.

However knowing that Lady Vader had brown hair was about as helpful as knowing that Coruscant had been the governing seat of all the major governments in the last twenty-five thousand plus years of history. If Lady Vader was a Human brown hair was one of the most common color among Humans and not an uncommon hair color for the near Human species with hair and with her brown then eyes it would be like trying to find pick out a pink Coral Fish from a whole school of pink Coral Fish.

Ana had learned that Lady Vader hated Jedi after she had made the mistake of saying she wanted to play one with pride. Lady Vader had stated that one had almost killed her father which had been important news for the Rebellion but they didn’t know when or how.

Other information about Lady Vader was sparse.

Of course there were the occasional news clips featuring a few brief flashes of what Lady Vader looked like. There was a relatively clear holo recording of her after a failed assassination attempt on her father showing her being carried away by a Clone while Emergency Personnel hurried into the remains of a hangar.

For days afterwards reporters had questioned the motives of the seditionists behind the bombings and the murders of innocent diplomats. The whole incident still blackened the name of the Rebellion in the Merican System. The Rebellion had sent a recruiter to the main planet Merica only for her to be arrested and almost killed by an angry mob while she was being transported from a planetary security speeder to the prison. They had no friends on Merica.

Another short clip from a few years later after an angry mob attacked Gilder Industries main building when they heard that Terrison Gilder was suspected of selling weapons to Rebel Cells and had murdered one of his employees in order to lay the blame at his feet. A media droid had just narrowly captured Lord Vader comforting a young girl with brown hair when he noticed the droid and used his cloak to shield her from it.

There were a few other scraps of information like the fact she had bodyguards until she was fourteen. They had theorized that at that age she had learned how to defend herself from most threats to her person.

She didn’t take betrayal well and believed that the Republic had been too corrupt to save. Ana had on one occasion tried to point out that Lady Vader had never lived under the Republic so she couldn’t know for sure if the Republic was better to which Lady Vader had replied that neither had she.

After that all political discussions they had were both unpleasant and insightful. They could never agree on most matters except that change was needed.

Looking around her quarters, she spotted Han's crate full of holos of his girlfriend sitting on her bed. He had asked her to give to Luke; he had told her it was because Luke ‘needed to learn the truth’. She had tried to ask him what he meant but he refused to say anything in front of Chewie and Lando.

She had asked Chewie and Lando about her only to learn that Chewie never knew that Han had a girlfriend and Lando only knew that the girl was younger than Han, quite the mechanic and her father either was an official in the Empire or did business with the Empire. Han himself had admitted that his girlfriend had friends and connections in the Empire and that her father’s superior hadn’t liked him.

Han had made it no secret that he used to be an Imperial Officer but he refused to talk about it and made it clear that he had only stayed with the Rebellion as long as he had because of Luke. He didn’t trust the higher ups not to take advantage of the young Force Sensitive.

He finally had said that he needed to leave to pay Jabba the Hutt off and implied that he trusted at least her and Rieekan enough to not exploit the eager to please young man. She of course tried to talk Han into finding another reason to stay and for a time she had even had a small crush on the smuggler but it was clear as day that he didn’t feel the same way about her.

At least she had found Pter and he was someone that not only respected her but she could respect as well.

She wondered if perhaps there was some clue or other to Han’s motivations and his odd choice of words to Lady Vader hidden in the crate.

Slowly heading for her bed, she opened the crate and looked at the jumble of holo albums, a bunch of datachips, a few other holo recording devices and several random things. Gazing at the mess she wondered if she was opening that box from legend that could never be closed once it was opened.

Mustering her courage, she finally plucked one of the albums from the mess and flipped it on.

In a couple of seconds, a holo image of a small girl appeared in the air over the device. She was dressed in a simple charcoal colored dress with her dark brown hair in twin Lekku Braids.

“Guess what, Daddy?” she asked brightly.

“What, Angel?” a male’s voice asked somewhere out of view.

“I found the problem with your favorite speeder!” She said with a wide smile.

“You did?” her invisible father exclaimed; sounding amused but pleased at the same time. “What was wrong with it?” he asked her.

The little girl held herself up and smiled proudly and rattled mechanical things off which amounted to something being too loose and some oily gunk getting on some other part.

Angel’s father laughed; a rich sound.

The recording stopped and Ana wondered why Han had a recording of such a young girl. At first she thought he was the father but the voice was wrong. The man in the holo recording had a slight rasp and while it sounded familiar the man wasn’t Han.

She paused the album so she could search it to see if there were any dates attached to any of the recordings about discovered that most of them were recorded either before she was born or when she was two or so years old. The one she had watched was when Ana herself had been almost three.

Picking up a random one she flipped through the recording dates and found one dated over three years ago. Hoping that this one had some useful information she selected the recording and watched as holos of Han and a vaguely familiar young woman sprang to life.

“Dancing is really simple; I’ll have you dancing like a pro in time for the party next week.” The woman that appeared to be in her late teens, early twenties declared as she helped a less scruffy looking Han find the correct position for a Vi’Ennish Waltz.

“Shouldn’t I watch some holos of it first?” Han asked as he allowed the young woman to position him

“You’ve seen beings do several of Vi’Ennish Waltzes in all the Coruscant Antilles Holo Dramas.” She laughed playfully.

Han dropped her arm and looked at her in fear. “I am not that graceful Angel!” he protested.

Angel laughed, “If my father can do all of the Vi’Ennish Waltzes with his cybernetic limbs with no one being the wiser than you can learn how to do them too.” She declared.

Slowly at first Angel instructed Han how to do the Schmetterling before she moved on to the Wolken and finally the Jagen.

They then moved to the Kaskade a lively dance from Naboo and a few other dances that Ana remembered from her childhood.

Now and then they would say something and apparently watch the recording since now and then it showed them redoing the dances but with more instructions or more encouragement from Angel.

“So are we going to dance in our costumes?” Han asked Angel.

“Once you know the dances better, then we will move on to costumes.” Angel answered.

“I can’t wait to see the looks on everyone’s faces.” Han said with anticipation.

Angel laughed and clutched Han’s shirt as she almost convulsed into giggles.

“They will be totally scandalized.” Angel said and received a kiss from Han.

Ana quickly turned the recording off and placed it back into the crate. She had felt a bit like an intruder during the last part. It was almost surreal seeing Han laughing with a woman; he had never seemed interested with women in the past.

She wondered what party they were talking about. Since she didn’t know too much about Han and she had no idea who Angel was they could be attending any number of costumed parties or galas around the galaxy. Well that was only partly true, if waltzes were going to be done it would have been one put on by a politician like a Planetary Leader or a Moff.

Carefully she picked up another holo album and just turned it on; hoping that she wasn’t going to regret starting up.

Ana was pleasantly surprised when the holo image of Angel as a small child popped up clutching a Tooka Doll sitting in the lap of an older woman who was brushing her hair.

Angel’s grandmother laughed and there was the sound of the holonet being turned on and the sound of channels being flipped through. After a bit the theme song of Wylla and Friends began to play.

“Who’s your favorite character?” Angel’s Nana asked.

“Eshe and Wylla,” Angel answered.

“Do you like Eshe because she’s a Tooka?” her Nana asked.

Angel smiled. “Yes,” she answered.

“Is that it?” her grandmother gently pressed as she wove Angel’s hair through and around what appeared to be a wooden disk.

“She’s nice and tries to help beings feel better.” Angel answered as she adjusted her Tooka Doll’s position on her lap.

“Why do you like Wylla?” her Nana asked. “Is it because she’s the main being?”

“Daddy likes her; he says she reminds him of a friend.” Angel answered.

“Bun-bun is funny too but he’s mean a lot to Torg and the others. Daddy says it’s because no one taught him how to be kind to others.”

Ana continued to listen to Angel and her Nana talk about the importance of loyalty, being kind and having good friends when a Rebel Shadowfeed hijacked the broadcast.

She watched and listened as a distorted female voice decried the cruelty of the Empire and how they had brutally attacked a single father and his daughter at the Machigonne Spaceport on Whetu a few months ago for no reason.

Angel immediately started screaming and begged her Nana to turn the holonet off as the sound of the footage began to play.

Ana watched as Angel’s Nana held her and started to whisper things to her while the sound of a door opening and running footsteps were recorded.

The holo recording ended and Ana replaced it in the crate.

The Whetu Recording as it was known as was the most controversial recording that the Rebellion used against the Empire. The Rebellion and their allies claimed that it showed an unprovoked and unjustified attack on a single father waiting for his transport and then needless cruelty to a child.

The Empire of course fired back that the recording had been doctored severely by the Rebellion showing that the stormtroopers had attacked the man for no reason when instead the man had attacked a pair of stormtroopers and killed three stormtroopers along with ten Red Guard while his daughter had murdered one of the Empire’s Elite with the Elite’s own lightsaber. They claimed that the man had been a dangerous individual that they had been hoping to take into custody quietly.

The Empire had even shown the ‘real’ recording and ‘witnesses’ from the terminal had testified that the man had attacked the stormtroopers for no obvious reason and had indeed killed a Red Guard with the guard’s own Force Pike.

Some believed the Empire’s story while others didn’t. Ana didn’t buy the Empire’s story but her father had told her that some of their own would have good reasons for doctoring the footage. First it would garner sympathy and make the Empire look overly cruel. Second by twisting the truth a villain could be made to be an innocent bystander who was just minding his own business. Third and last it would split people and possibly lead to some kind of change for either better or worse. He had even pointed out how in the Rebel Version of the recording the faces in the crowd were slightly blurry at times and in a quick shot you could see a humanoid male trying to save a pile of datacards next to a row of seats.

You never saw his bag get spilled and if a beating was taking place just a few meters away from him why was he calmly collecting his datacards instead of being frozen in shock or horror?

In the one released by the Empire he had been sitting next to the man and taken shelter underneath the opposite row of seats and barely visible for most of the recording except for peering out a few times and then slowly crawling out after the mystery man had collapsed after a lucky blow from a Red Guard where he started to jerk as if from a seizure or a serious electric shock while the Red Guard and stormtroopers backed away but still trained their weapons at him. The Datacard Man then can be seen getting to stand when the daughter was brought back when he somehow dropped his bag; spilling his datacards on the floor which he doesn’t move to retrieve until after the father-daughter duo had been taken away.

Someone pressed the chime on her door, shattering her memories into tiny pieces.

Quickly closing the crate, she headed for the door and pressed the button to open it. She was pleased to see Pter standing there.

“Please tell me you found something.” She begged him

“Well, I’ve got some good news and some bad news.” He told her as she stepped aside to allow him access to her quarters.

“Well start with the bad news, if you can.” She told him as she sat in a chair.

Pter shook his head. “Sorry, Sweetheart but I’ve got to give you the good news first since the bad news won’t make sense without it.” He informed her.

Ana suppressed a groan; a habit she had fallen into after spending too much time around Han. It was a bad habit for a politician to have.

“Okay, tell me the good news first.” She told him as she straightened.

“Well the good news is I found the ship that you and the others saw at Bespin and I was able to trace it to an owner: an Angel Naberrie. The bad news is that she might be an Imperial Lieutenant. Our contact on Naboo took a security recording from a private hangar in the capital where Miss Naberrie docks her ship when she’s on planet. The recording shows a red haired woman dressed as an Imperial Ensign’s uniform arriving in a speeder. She waits until the Miss Naberrie’s ship lands, waits before she boards carrying a package. She’s on the ship for about twenty minutes before she exits with a brown haired female wearing a Lieutenant’s uniform and helping who appears to be Commander Skywalker dressed in an Imperial Lieutenant’s uniform to the speeder. They arrived safely at the Theed Medical Center and they haven’t left.” Pter reported.

Ana grimaced slightly.

Naboo wasn’t overly friendly to the Rebellion but the Rebellion did have a few friends on the planet. Silently Ana cursed every single one of the zealots out there that gave the Rebellion a bad name: first Merica and then Naboo. Some idiots as her father had once put it had tried to kill Lady Vader after the Nubian Festival of Light when she was ten citing the reason to be to insure that the Heir of the Empire would lose his Heir. After that Naboo hadn’t been too welcoming to certain topics.

Of course who wouldn’t be livid that one of their guests of honor had an attempt on their life?

“Her name’s Angel Naberrie?” Ana asked as she remembered the name of the Han’s girlfriend: Angel.

“That’s the name on the ship’s registration.” Pter answered calmly.

“What are the odds?” she asked herself softly.

“Pardon?” he asked politely.

“Angel is the name of an old friend of Han Solo.” She answered.

Pter made a noise of acknowledgment.

The problem would be getting on undetected since the Empire was almost actively searching for them. They would have to send unknown members of the Rebellion to avoid their arrests and hope that they could extract Luke.

“Pter, how would you feel about getting Luke off of Naboo?” Ana asked her friend.

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Naboo, Theed Medical . . .

Luke had decided that the medical droid attending to his arm was either an interrogation droid in disguise or training to be one. It didn’t seem to understand the need to be gentle.

He noticed that the red haired woman, Mara, looked vaguely amused when he hissed in pain as he made a fist on the command of the medical droid. She had traded in her Imperial uniform for black trousers and a deep green long tunic.

“At least your hand is still attached to your wrist.” She commented; drily.

“I hope that you’re not some sort of sadist.” Luke snapped.

“Roganda was the sadist not me.” She replied harshly.

Luke winced. He hadn’t meant to offend her. He was sure that if she wanted she could kill him with her small fingers.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“Yes!” she told him firmly; a touch of anger in her voice.

The door to the suite opened and admitted a woman a few years older than them.

“Oh,” she said; obviously shocked by the sight before her.

“Is my cousin here?” the newcomer asked.

“She’s in the other room. She should be out shortly.” Mara informed her in a voice that left little room for argument.

“I can wait for her then.” The new woman said as she came over; picking up the remote for the holonet as she took a seat. “Dederick is going to ask Maridyth to marry; I just know it!” She said almost gleefully as she flipped to a channel and the ending theme of some holo drama began to play.

“So, what are we watching?” Luke asked; hoping that it wasn’t going to be a Holo Savon Opera. Biggs’s mother loved all sorts of Savon Operas while his aunt and friend Camie preferred to watch regular Holo Dramas when they had the time to. His aunt liked the Romantic Holo Dramas while Camie preferred the Medical Holo Dramas.

“Bio Anatomy,” she answered simply.

Luke felt like hitting himself. He remembered Camie mentioning Bio Anatomy and the names Dederick and Maridyth before and in reference to each other. Luke preferred to work with his hands than watch silly holo dramas but he used to enjoy the crime related ones.

He watched as some medical center appeared surrounded by trees and water with various alien species milling around.

The camera zeroed in on a couple of females talking about work and daily life when the image went to static before being replaced with the Firebird of the Rebel Alliance.

“Citizens of the Galaxy the Galactic Empire is a corrupt government that brutalizes all and anyone that they wish.” A distorted female voice declared.

“Almost eighteen years ago stormtroopers and Red Guard attacked an innocent Human Male in the Machigonne Spaceport on Whetu. To this day the Empire claims that the man calling himself Raijin Quell was a fugitive fleeing from the Empire and a dangerous individual with his daughter Alix.

“Do not believe the lies of the Empire! Raijin Quell was an innocent man just trying to raise his daughter in a turbulent galaxy. He was viciously attacked to allow the stormtroopers to learn how to brutalize everyday citizens.”

Luke watched as the Firebird was replaced with the Whetu Recording. He watched as Raijin was attacked by stormtroopers and Red Guard with blaster rifles and Force Pikes.

Out of the corner of his right eye he saw Angel return from the side room dressed in black trousers and sunset colored tunic. He saw and Felt her fury when her eyes landed on the holo display.

With speed worthy of hyperspace, Mara used the Force to snatch the remote from the woman’s slack fingers and turned off the holo display; cutting off the message from the Rebellion.

Angel’s face was a mask of anger, hate and fury as she glared at empty space.

“When I get my hands on the koochu that edited that recording they will wish that they never decided to go into holo editing!” Angel spat. “They will die the most painful death I can think of!”

“I am sure that it will be glorious milady.” The medical droid said as it slathered an interesting smelling cream on his forearm.

“Sorry milady,” the droid said as it wrapped his wrist in some sort of bandage.

“I know I would torture them.” Mara growled angrily. “Then I would make garters out of their intestines.”

Angel snorted angrily. “I would just burn them alive after I tortured them and only touch them while wearing gloves. Lying scum like that I would never willingly touch!” She stated; her voice was scathing.

Luke grimaced and hoped that Angel and the editor of the Whetu Recording never crossed paths.

“You need to calm down; but if it helps I will turn a blind eye long enough for you to punch them a few times.” The woman told Angel.

Angel’s face softened a bit.

“Thank you cousin, I needed to hear that. I’ll be leaving here shortly; tell Nana that I’ll be there in time for dinner. And don’t mention him to anyone.” Angel told the unnamed woman.

“I understand.” The woman answered before she stood and left the room.

He watched as Angel took a few deep, steadying breaths and mutter a few things he didn’t quite catch but it sounded like ‘don’t lose control, control is important’.

It was then that Luke noticed that the holo display was sparking rather ominously. Master Yoda had told him that uncontrolled emotions could lead to a sort of Force Storm that could lead to accidentally crushed objects and sparks from electric equipment.

One minute passed, then five minutes followed by ten minutes.

He could see the tension slowly bleeding and Feel Angel calming down from her rage.

The medical droid then moved over to Angel and she allowed it to examine her wrists. Luke felt his eyes widened when he saw the scrapes on her wrists.

Without a word the medical droid wrapped Angel’s wrists in bacta patches before moving to the far wall and deactivated itself.

“I’m going to visit my relatives; since that’s where I’m supposed to be right now.” Angel said; obviously still fuming over the Rebel Shadowfeed but a lot calmer than she had been a few moments before. Mara nodded as Angel turned and left the room.

“The Rebels doctored the recording rather heavily.” Mara explained.

Luke felt part of him bristle at the insinuation that the Rebellion lied about such an injustice.

“I can show you the real recording.” She offered calmly.

“If you have it,” Luke told her.

He watched Mara retrieve a device from a cabinet and play with it. “Here you go.” She commented as she leaned in so he could see the device clearly. It was some sort of playback device for holo recordings.

The screen of the device showed a decent sized terminal of a spaceport filled with beings milling around. He could hear the buzz of indistinct conversations and music meant to help calm most beings. After a time a man with bad facial burns; Raijin Quell with his daughter Alix appeared and headed for a some empty seats in a seat row; seating next to a male humanoid.

There was a brief conversation between the two men and possibly Alix before the girl ran off to use the refresher.

After the girl left, the two men continued to talk about what he didn’t know.

Suddenly an announcement interrupted the music; informing those inside the terminal that stormtroopers would be searching the identifications of those inside searching for insurgents. The two men exchanged a few more words before the arrival of the stormtroopers and an officer.

Luke wished he knew what they were talking about but the security cams were in the wrong place to read the lips of both men. Luke watched as stormtroopers in pairs of two checked the identifications of different beings and as two made their way to the burned man.

He watched as the two stormtroopers checked the ID of the man next to Raijin before moving on to him. They checked Raijin’s ID and scanned him like he had seen them do to a few other beings.

The two stormtroopers suddenly stopped, returned, and spoke to Raijin, stepped on his foot before one of them kicked him just below the knee. One of the stormtroopers made a summoning gesture just as Raijin attacked the other one.

Luke felt his mouth fall out in shock as Raijin attacked all stormtroopers that got too close; capitalizing on their fear of missing him and hitting civilians with stun blasts.

He could hear the screams of the now frightened beings in the terminal and he heard a faint voice tell a ‘Leia’ to run.

Raijin smashed the butt of his stolen rifle in the helmet of a stormtrooper and continued to take on the stormtroopers while the officer was yelling into her commlink.

It was about this point that the Red Guard appeared and Raijin flew at them with almost inhuman speed. Raijin somehow ripped a Force Pike from a Red Guard and killed him before he could react.

Raijin was a storm of fury as he hit anyone that got too close to him; forcing them to more or less form a ring around him. For a long time Raijin dealt a lot of damage to the Imperial officers and for a time it looked like Raijin would make a break for it.

The shrill, frightened scream of a child somehow cut through the chaos in the terminal and Raijin froze long enough for one of the Red Guard to hit him with an electric jolt. Raijin went down and started to spasm almost uncontrollably. The Red Guard and stormtroopers were immediately on guard and once Raijin went still a few Red Guard started to poke the still body of Raijin Quell.

The Imperial Officer was speaking into her commlink while the Red Guard insured that Raijin wasn’t going to get back up and continue his attack.

An odd hover stretcher was brought in; covered in restraints that would hold an average sized near humanoid but looked more suited to restraining a Wookiee or a Trandoshan. Cautiously the stormtroopers loaded Raijin’s unconscious body onto the hover stretcher; locking the restraints into place as they went.

Luke watched as Alix was dragged back to where she had started by a female Twi’lek; fighting for all she was worth. Luke could see the fear in her eyes and her mouth moving but the sound in the terminal stopped him from hearing what she was saying.

Alix went limp, catching the Twi’lek female off guard and Alix managed to escape the grip of her captor. Alix snatched the lightsaber off the belt of the Twi’lek female and activated it; killing the Twi’lek female or at least severely injuring her.

A Red Guard managed to get Alix to drop her stolen lightsaber before slapping on a pair of stun or shock cuffs around her wrists. Alix tried to pull her wrists apart and received an obvious shock and her shriek of pain was clearly heard.

He heard her beg her daddy to know leave her and found himself choking a bit as she was dragged away by the Red Guard that had cuffed her as she screamed for him to let her go.

With that Mara turned off the recording.

“He killed three stormtroopers and ten Red Guards while his daughter managed to kill that Empire’s Elite that you saw.” She told him.

Luke swallowed in shock. He really didn’t know what to believe about the recording from that spaceport on Whetu. The Rebellion portrayed Raijin Quell as a victim while the Empire said and showed him as some sort of villain. He knew enough about the Empire that they wouldn’t have shown someone taking on the Red Guard and killing some of them since their main job was to protect the Emperor unless someone had indeed killed somebody.

His thoughts suddenly stalled. Why had the Red Guard been involved in taking on Raijin? Was Raijin a Jedi that had somehow managed to evade the Empire until that day? Why had he been taken alive? What happened to his daughter?

“So you think you’re some sort of Jedi; taking on Lord Vader?” Mara asked him suddenly.

Luke jumped and looked around but it was just him and Mara in the main room with a few deactivated medical droids lining the far wall.

“Yes, I am a Jedi.” Luke responded softly.

“Why would you want to become one of those hypocrites?” she asked him coolly.

“My father was a Jedi.” He answered slowly; pushing away the memory of Bespin.

Mara’s eyebrows went up and the Force rippled with surprise.

“So you wanted to be like your beloved father? He never even raised you!” She hissed.

Luke felt himself bristle at the implications both spoken and unspoken.

“I wanted to feel close to my father.” He answered truthfully. “Though I am curious to know what makes you think that the Jedi were hypocrites?”

He watched as Mara took a few deep, steadying breaths. “The Jedi Code forbade romantic relationships that could lead to attachments. But if a Jedi wished they could have a physical relationship with someone as long as they didn’t become attached. Your father must have broken the Jedi Code if half the things I have heard about Anakin Skywalker are true. If he truly loved your mother then you are very lucky.” She told him.

“Why?” he asked; filing away everything else she had said for later analyst.

“My father is or was a Jedi. Twenty years ago my mother offered him shelter for two or three months and they had a relationship. When my mother told him that she was pregnant with me he left her without a word. Don’t you dare tell me that he might have left us in an effort to protect us. My father tried to obey the rules of the Jedi Order and tried not to go against the Jedi Council to the point that if they told him to cut ties with his Master and Padawan he would have done so without a second thought. He believed the Council to be a higher authority than the Force or those that were in the situation. He wouldn’t have stood up to them to do what he Felt was right.” She told him calmly but her voice held a note of suppressed anger.

“I’m sorry.” He told her; meaning it.

Her eyes widened a bit but a slight smile came to her face with a hint of gratitude. “Thank you,” she whispered.

xxxxxxxxx

Naboo, Streets of Theed . . .

She knew that she should let her anger go but at the moment she can’t bring herself to care. It would have been one thing if the Rebels had just used the real recording and hadn’t tried to discredit those that had seen the events play out she might not have had such volatile reactions in the past.

It felt good though to be out of the Imperial uniform and a few words in her usual attire of Lady Vader had the troops in front of the Medical Center packing for the barracks.

Pausing underneath a tree, she remembered Han’s last words to her and what her possible brother had told her that Han had told him.

Had Han Solo still loved her those three years he had been gone? Why had he left Coruscant and why had her father told her that Han had died? She didn’t think that her father would lie to her about Han and seeing that he liked the promising lieutenant it seemed unlikely that he would have deceived her about Han’s fate. She wasn’t sure who had lied about Han’s fate but she would find out who it was.

For now she would talk to her mother’s family and try to find some answers with them.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thank you for your time and please leave your thoughts; I enjoy hearing from you.

Enjoyed the holo-scenes Ana went through. Very nice mix of Angel doing fun girly things. I enjoyed also the Angel, Mara, and Luke scene. The reaction to the varied and quite contrasting news reports, especially.

Well Ana seems to be conflicted in regards to Luke, didn't gain much insight from the holo-scenes she saw of Lady Vader. Luke is still trying to make sense of things but did get his hand/arm patched up and a different version of the news report. Angel is now wondering why she was lied to about Solo

Nyota's Heart in some ways Angel likes being a girly girl. But don't tell her I told you that.

geno yeah, Ana wasn't meant to understand the holo recordings and since she doesn't know who the girl is. In the show 'Lie to Me' the main character's catchphrase is "everyone lies (for different reasons)"

Someone asked a very good question: how did Han figure out that Luke was related to Ani and Angel? They trusted him and let in on many different secrets of theirs. One thing that they told him was that Lord Vader used to go by the name Anakin Skywalker and Angel gave Han her true name a few days before his audience with the Emperor. Between what Han had been told and knew about Anakin Skywalker and what Luke revealed to him and other Han was able to become fairly confident that Luke was in fact Lord Vader’s son and Lady Vader’s brother. That is one reason during the card game Han added a personal question to the wager.

I want to apologize for the delay; for two weeks I was visiting R’n’R and Jean in Virginia and then I had concerns while writing this chapter; I started this chapter and deleted about three hundred words and rewrote what was left and went from there.

There is several amusing things in this chapter; or at least I think there are several amusing things in this chapter.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Naboo, one day later . . .

Luke sat in a meditative position on a mat that Mara had gotten for him and was on one herself meditating. He had tried to quiet his mind like he had been taught but the events of Bespin, Mara’s accusation and the possibility that Han had kept information from him wasn’t conducive to meditation.

However, he would keep at it until he could find some semblance of inner balance.

“Have you ever been jealous of someone Skywalker?” Mara asked suddenly, startling him out of his near meditative state.

“What do you mean?” he asked her.

She fixed him with her bright green eyes. “When I was young I wanted a father so much that during a trip to Coruscant I tried to set my mother up with an unmarried man at a party she attended on Coruscant and brought me too.” Mara paused in her narrative; her Presence told him that she was recalling a fond memory. “I was four or five at the time and acutely aware of the fact that I didn’t have a father. Since it was a costume party everyone was dressed up as all sorts of characters. I had talked my mother into dressing up as Adina from Wylla and Friends and dressing me as Belatryx from the same show. I remembered that I was in awe of the room the gala was being held in and I was sure that somewhere in the room there was a single man looking for love. My mom ended most of my plans by insisting that I stay near her at all times but during the night a man dressed as Torg approached my mother and asked her a few questions about her health and the state of our home world. My mother gave him answers and she asked him about something that I don’t remember and he answered her. About that time I asked him quite bluntly if he was married since he was alone. My mother shushed me but he just laughed, said I reminded him of his little girl, and he informed me that his wife was deceased. I asked him how old his daughter was and if she was at the party or at home and he informed me that she was at the party and should be back any moment. At that point he and my mom started to talk about the pros and cons of neutrality, being assertive and when we should back down from a fight and other things that went over my young head."

Mara stopped her story and convulsed in laughter. Luke waited for her to stop laughing and continue the story.

"I quickly asked him if he wanted to marry my mother when they paused to take drinks from a serving droid. My mom snapped my name and told me it was rude of me to ask a complete stranger if he wanted to marry her. On his part he just said that my mom was almost old enough to be his mother and that they didn't know each other well enough to get married."

Mara fell back into a fit of laughter; a noise that Luke felt raised his spirits somewhat.

"They returned to their discussion on the state of things in the galaxy when there was a slight disturbance in another part of the room which caught their attention at first but dismissed. A minute later I saw a small figure dressed as Eshe hurrying towards us through the crowded room and watched as she jumped through the air, landed on the man’s back and wrapped her arms around his neck screaming 'Daddy'. Her father jerked a bit from her sudden weight on his back greeted her and asked what she had been up to. Before she could answer the crowd parted to let an older human male through. He would have looked quite stately dressed as Lockesher Holme if several large, dark stains of at least two different beverages weren't marring its front.

“And-” Mara stopped speaking when the door to the suite slid open to reveal Angel standing there with an odd expression on her face.

“Pappaw isn’t doing well and Nana worries about him. My aunt said, once again, that she’s grateful to the Goddesses that I was returned to my family or there would be such a large hole in their family without me. My cousins want me to visit more often but with my responsibilities, my visits have to be open to interruptions which sometimes upset them.” Angel informed Mara.

“I asked them all separately a question that matters to me a lot and they all gave me similar advice on the matter. I will need to talk to a couple individuals later about my options and how to get it done. I suspect that I will have to take certain classes from a certain group of tutors to get what I desire from one person but lessons in politics and diplomacy are small prices to pay for help and advice.” Angel continued as she walked to a storage locker and retrieved a datapad.

“You were abducted?” Luke asked; horrified.

“Yep, moments after my birth,” Angel answered. “Someone didn’t want anyone to know that I was alive so they had my birth erased from the medical center’s archives and made it look like my mother had died from some complication before she could arrive at the center. Lucky for me there was an honest sentient there that suspected that something was wrong and found me when I was about a week old. They punished the one that took me and returned me to my family where I belong.” Angel told him without looking up from the datapad.

Dread welled up in Luke as he listened to her story. He had wondered something similar about himself on the drive to this medical center. The main difference was that he had been the one taken from his father while she had been taken from her dead mother and there had been a cover up.

“Do you know Han Solo?” Luke asked her to chase away the thoughts about his possible connection to Lord and Lady Vader.

Angel jerked and her head shot in his direction; her eyes were wide and the Force flicked briefly with shock.

“I met a Lieutenant Han Solo when I was sixteen standard years old and bonded with him talking about swoop bikes, other racing vehicles and racing in general. We were quite good friends.” Angel informed him in a stilted voice. “Three years ago, a few months after my nineteenth birthday, he was unexpectedly assigned to an Outer Rim post where he was captured by Rebels or rather pirates with Rebel Sympathies that liked to attack Imperial Bases and sell the stolen goods to the Rebellion for a decent price. They later tortured him to death for standing up to them; they even sent the Empire his bloodied dog chip.” Angel told him; her face was blank but the Force now and then flared with emotions like joy, sorrow and pain.

Luke knew that Lieutenant Han Solo meant more to her than she was letting on; this Han Solo had to be her boyfriend and Luke was willing to bet his meager pay with the Alliance that her Han and his Han were the one and the same. It would explain how Han had suspicions or perhaps insights on Lady Vader: dating one of the Empire’s Elite would by default give him information that the rest of the galaxy wasn’t privy to.

The only thing that snagged that theory was her Han had died three years ago while the Han he knew was alive and hopefully well. Of course there was the chance that Han had been sent by his superiors to gather intelligence on the Hutts and the cover story was that he had been killed by Rebels or pirates but keeping the same name didn’t make sense.

“You haven’t been able to move on since you heard the news.” He noted.

“You’re not like other Rebels I’ve met.” Mara commented out loud; changing the conversation. “So many are either zealots of some kind or all their bravery and conviction goes out the airlock. A few of them stood by their beliefs until the very end. None of them were polite or thought of how their actions affected others.

“So many Rebels choose to see Imperial Officers and Soldiers as just cogs in some giant machine that are as replaceable as cogs in some real life giant machine. These officers and soldiers don’t have families, friends or loved ones of any kind just drones that are no different than the Clones that still make up parts of the Stormtrooper Corps.” Mara continued calmly.

“Or that a child should be judged because of who her father is.” Angel added thoughtfully.

Curiosity gripped him the moment Angel’s comment registered in his mind. He knew of plenty of Rebels that despised Lady Vader for being Lord Vader’s heir and only that. He had the privilege of listening to Mon Mothma and a few of the other leaders of the Rebellion discuss Lady Vader as a person and a leader. Mon Mothma had almost fond recollections of a small girl peering around Lord Vader’s legs with curious brown eyes but polite to almost a fault. As Lady Vader had aged, she grew bolder and there were plenty of stories of her mouthing off to all sorts of higher ups in the Empire including Governor Wilhuff Tarkin. She was a good commander of troops and when she wasn’t letting her mouth get ahead of her could have quite good discussions on various subjects: philosophy, politics and theology just to name a few. More often than not, her father would appear and drag her away from a debate when it got too heated. Mon Mothma had stated that she doubted that Lady Vader at the time would have been kind to the Rebellion since she had more than once had stated that she found the Rebellion to be hypocrites on par with those that they denounced in the Empire.

For a second, he had a brief vision of what his life might have been like growing up in the Imperial Court. Standing tall and proud, discussing policies and the state of the galaxy and trying to temper Lady Vader.

Shaking his head harshly to dispel the images, he reminded himself that he couldn’t and shouldn’t go down that path until he knew more. There could be nothing gained by going down that path if it was all an elaborate lie.

“It’s time for the patient's physical therapy.” One of the droids suddenly announced as it moved away from the wall, dragging him back the present.

“I’ll be paying my respects to my mother.” Angel said as she turned towards the door.

“Han is still a sore subject for her.” Mara informed him. “She really loved him and he her. It’s rare to meet someone that you feel a deep connection with and they with you. His death sent her into denial for a year. I remember clearly when she accepted that he was gone; she cried for hours and then destroyed countless training droids.”

In one smooth motion, Mara stood with a sad smile.

“I’ll get you a local delicacy for lunch.” She told him as she made her way to the door.

“Will you finish your story?” he asked her before she could open the door.

Turning to face him, she smiled; the Force shining with warmth. “I will once I get us some good food.

xxxxxxxx

Rebel Fleet, secret location . . .

Pter Ahgents mentally went through the information they had on Naboo and ways to avoid being discovered.

They were still waiting for their informant to give them an update and all was quiet on the Imperial front on Naboo.

He wondered how the two women had done it. Got their hands on three Imperial Uniforms complete with rank bars, identification chips and who knows what else.

Glancing around at the others in the room, Pter wondered idly what the odds were that by the time they got the needed information, created a rescue plan and were ready to go that Luke would signal them from who knew where for a lift.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted his uncle Wyllys Haugen watching something on his datapad. Pter knew what his uncle was looking at and he would bet a lot of money that his uncle was reviewing security footage from the Alderaanian Palace when the Queen and Viceroy’s almost daughter had been abducted.

Wyllys Haugen swore by all the deities that might exist that something else had happened that day. Pter had asked once what that was but his uncle could never fully settle on what the abduction was a cover for.

In a mixture of frustration and mean-spiritedness, Pter had once asked his uncle if he hadn’t looked into the possibility that Kira Stardust had just been the pawn in someone’s twisted game and had given the baby to someone and taken a lifelike doll which she had been holding when shot by someone allied to the people that had approached her in the beginning. Afterwards they had removed her body worried that something about her would give them away.

Wyllys had taken it to heart and had dug up the meager information on Missus Stardust and her family. He had even gotten his hands on security recordings from spaceports all over Alderaan, tourist hotspots, Noble Houses and who knew where else.

A gasp of horror snapped Pter back into the present as he watched a growing expression of terror spread across his uncle’s face.

“What is it?” Avigail Moss asked, worry lacing her voice.

With shaking hands, Wyllys connected his datapad to the holoprojector in the table and did something.

The lights in the room dimmed a bit and a holo of some kind of medical room sprang to life from the holoprojector.

It only took Pter a few moments to recognize the room as a morgue.

Puzzled, he frowned and turned to ask his uncle what had spooked him so badly.

“You know how this recording would loop after a certain point?” His uncle asked no one in particular. “Well I noticed a while back that in a few places I could see movement in a few places so I ran it through a bunch of different programs and today it finished. So I started to watch it and then it happened.”

The recording was fairly boring at first with only a timer on the right hand side displaying the date and time. Pter was about to demand what was so frightening about a recording of a morgue when the click of a button being pressed came from the recording and the door to one of the coolers opened[/color= without anyone standing there.

“Personal cloaking device?” Pter asked, shocked.

“No, there would be a slight flickering from the device that would be picked up on the security cam, keep watching.” His uncle ordered.

Slowly, the metal slab with a covered body slid out with no one there to guide it. Confused, Pter examined the holo as he looked for something to explain why a morgue cooler had opened and the body slid out.

Then the covered body sat up and the white sheet fell off her face. Pter felt his mouth fall open in shocked confusion as the woman caught the sheet before it could reveal too much.

Pter watched with Avigail and his uncle as the mysterious woman carefully wrapped herself in the sheet and slid off the metal slab to the metal floor.

Without a backward glance, the woman walked away from the morgue cooler she had been in seconds ago.

They watched as the woman walked to one of the sinks and spat up a mouthful or two of water into it. After a few minutes of coughing and spitting she somehow filled the sink with what looked like a cleaner and somehow turned on the water. As she waited for the sink to fill she rebraided her long brown hair humming some song cheerfully.

Once the sink was about filled half way she put her hands in the water and carefully swished it around. After a few minutes she turned off the water and let it drain away.

After waiting for a bit, she started to walk around the morgue collecting various objects including some jewelry and articles of clothing; using the slab she had been laying on to sort the things.

Methodically she removed articles of clothing from the bag and placed the clothes she had taken from the morgue into the bag along with the jewelry and other odds and ends.

Her lips moved and a soft song in a language that Pter didn’t understand played from the speakers.

Finally she had packed everything she had taken from the morgue and put them in the traveling bag.

Then holding the bag she closed her eyes.

Pter’s mouth fell open as he watched her features twist and seem to melt somewhat. In a few minutes a completely different woman was standing there.

“By the Gods!” Avigail gasped in horror.

Then the woman took off the sheet and pulled on the clothes she had taken from the traveling bag and dressed in them.

The beep of a commlink was followed by a masculine voice speaking in a language that Pter didn’t know. Quicker than his eyes could follow the woman snatched a commlink from a side pocket of the bag and answered it in what he guessed was the language the man was speaking in.

They exchanged a few words as the woman folded the sheet she had been using and placed it in the bag and with a distracted flick of her fingers the slab she had been laying on about seventeen minutes ago slid back into its cooler and the cooler closed with a soft click.

Still talking to the man, the woman walked towards the door and vanished from the recording.

Pter didn’t realize that his heart had been pounding until he felt it slow down.

“Did we just watch a dead woman somehow open her morgue cooler, gather her things, change her appearance, dress herself and then walk away as if she was never dead to begin with?” Pter asked, confused and frightened by the recording he had just watched.

“I saw it too, Ahgents.” Avigail said softly. “A morgue cooler opened on its own, a woman got out of it, gathered her things, changed her form, got dressed and walked away as if nothing happened.”

“Dead people don’t just wake up and leave morgues!” Pter cried out in agitation. His mind buzzed with terrifying possibilities. Thoughts of how killing Lord Vader would be impossible; he was able to use the Force and the woman had apparently used it to not leave fingerprints behind.

When he was younger he had played a game that had a seemingly unkillable Force User in it. For the first time in a long time he wondered if that character had been based on some fact.

Of course not all Force Users could be impossible to kill since plenty had been killed over the years. But if certain beings couldn’t be killed the Rebel Alliance had lost the war before it had begun.

“Gods protect us!” he cried out.

xxxxxxxx

Mausoleum of Heroes . . .

She walked stately into the mausoleum that housed her mother’s remains. She never knew her mother besides the stories that her father, grandparents, aunt, uncle and older cousins shared with her.

She wondered what her mother would have thought of her life. She knew that her mother wouldn’t have had any love for the Empire and wanted to leave it all behind. She had wanted to go someplace far away with her husband and raise their unborn child far from Coruscant; something her father had tried to honor twice but failed both times.

The few beings she passed in the mausoleum silently bowed their heads in greeting which she returned.

Finally she reached the private resting place of her mother and entered with reverence. She made sure the door would close behind her to give her privacy she desired. She searched the room thoroughly for listening devices, she didn’t want anyone listening to anything she was going to say let alone her existence. Her rescuers had strongly suggested that the Jedi would have done anything within their power to try to ‘rescue’ her from her father if they knew the truth so she was a public secret.

She didn’t mind anymore that as Lady Vader she was one big mystery to the galaxy because under the veil and cloak she was her true self. Not to mention she had Lieutenant Angel Naberrie as an alter ego in the Empire complete with a serial number, personal codes and even a few postings.

Some days though she wished that she could just be herself all the time and have beings call her by her real name and not a title that wasn’t hers or a false name.

It was rare for her to use her real name and she allowed herself a few seconds to let herself think of what-might-have-beens. She wondered what it would have been like if she and her father had been able to escape.

A sob escaped her as she remembered the events that happened on Whetu so long ago. If only she had run in the other way that day or if she had Shielded better than Quorra wouldn't have found her.

At least she had been able to get rid of the datacard like her father had told her to if she got caught.

The datacard had contained information about their destination and how to get there if they had gotten separated or if she had to continue on without him.

She shivered in fear and some anger as she remembered the events of that tense time.

A tear escaped her right eye as she fought to control her emotions. She didn't know the consequences of her father's first escape attempt but she remembered the consequences of the second and final attempt all too well.

Her father had comforted her after the ‘demonstration’ of the new bond and assured her that he would do everything within his power to insure that she wouldn't be included in certain punishments.in as few punishments as possible.

She had held Paka tightly for days as she sobbed but between the tears she vowed to become stronger, learn how to lead troops and one day sit on the Imperial Throne.

She had grown up a bit from that wish but she did lead troops into battle and had trained in the ways of the Force.

Pushing her thoughts away, she placed a hand on her mother’s entombed body and carefully ran the palm of her right hand over the markings that decorated it.

“I am sorry I haven’t come to see you for so long mother. I have been busy doing my duties and I’m not like Daddy and Nana who can talk to you for hours. I don’t know any more what I should say to you and if you would even care. I’m told that you wouldn’t care what I said as long as I talked to you and kept you informed about what was happening in my life even if Daddy tells you anyway.”

She paused in her speech and stared at the colorful depiction of her mother; her belly swollen with the life that so many still believed never had a chance to live.

A steely anger gripped her as she remembered the revelations of a few weeks ago and the knowledge she carried deep within her.

“Did you know mother? Did you know that there was two?”

Tears ran down her cheeks in rivers.

She had withheld information from Luke when she had told him that her mother had died in childbirth; her mother had been murdered.

Her father had described why her mother had died giving birth to her to be like putting a 100 watt battery into a 10,000 watt charger. The battery would be fried if not destroyed because it couldn’t handle the power overload.

Her mother had had a midi-chlorian count that was above normal and delivered a child with the second highest known midi-chlorian count; or two children with abnormally high midi-chlorian counts as it appeared. To be blunt she had died from a sensory overload.

Whether it had been accidental or done purposely was unknown but with her mother out of the way there would have been no one to resist Kenobi as he methodically erased the birth of not one but two powerful Force Sensitive children and plotted to turn them into agents willing to commit patricide; unknowingly but still willing.

“Why mother, why would anyone do something so horrible? Tear children apart?” She asked as she dissolved into tears.

“My Other!” she whispered in grief.

She lowered her eyes and traced the archaic letters on the plaque embedded into her mother’s tomb that said Padme Naberrie: beloved daughter, loving sister, cherished wife and missed mother.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Most likely I will update DAC next and start working on the twenty-first some time after that.

Let me start with the Angel stuff first in the mausoleum. Superbly intense And then there's the L/M. The story she told about her trying to match her mom up Precocious ... I love how the Force flooded with warmth between she and Luke.

Then the scene with Pter, his uncle, and Avigail - wow! What an interesting thingy there! Very mysterious stuff.

Wow, then plot seems to darken each time I miss an update. So much heartbreak, secrets & even unwanted betrayal.

I am sorry that I am off-line so much. My computer quality time is not what it used to be. But your creative fanfic writer mind is always worth a visit.

(Some things I did in my absence the past three weeks: hosting old friends, going to the movies, having game evenings with new friends, my activities as a kindergarten teacher (= year planing of the kindergarten year with the rest of the team & the chair persons, parental evening for all parents, lantern making, parental evening just for the group, long weekly team meetings, supervision sessions with my team), being the fitness centre for either my two fitness programs, my Yoga course, my spine gymnastics course or wellness moments, meeting other SW fans in Berlin, visiting my family & having special evenings at home just with my husband.)

It seems to be the general consensus that the scene involving the woman in the morgue was creepy. That was one of the points so I am glad I got that across.

For those wondering why Leia hasn’t said anything to Luke . . . she’s’ kind of in denial, then she’s hurt and now she’s just plain out confused.

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With shaking fingers, Luke typed ‘Lady Vader’ into the search engine of the Holonet; after hesitating for a moment he hit ‘search’. Within seconds he had dozens of links and holopics of the mysterious woman.

Closing his eyes, he allowed the Force to guide him to a link and selected it. Opening his eyes, he looked at the screen and looked at the article.

Lady Vader has turned heads yet again in the Imperial Court. The young woman was recorded not only mouthing off to Governor Wilhuff Tarkin but called Senator Bail Organa an ignorant, short-sighted Nerf Herder. She implied to Governor Fedir Mgwaqo’s face that he might not be as loyal to the Empire as he professes but that she doesn’t believe that he is as traitorous as the late of Governors Ilari Roydon and Delian Mors.

Besides her sharp tongue Lady Vader once again stated that she doesn't support planetary governments that have schools dedicated to training the next generation of planetary leaders that feel that it is right to deceive them to the true strength, power and influence of various governmental powers.

She stated, once again, that instead of preventing corruption within the planetary government it creates weaknesses in the potential leaders who are brainwashed as she put it to believe in false ideals and have unrealistic views of the galaxy that could lead them into being manipulated by unsavory individuals that don't deserve anyone's trust. She is cited to have said that one such victim as she put didn't know that the Republic’s reach was fickle in the Outer Rim and that slavery existed there.

This individual had been shocked by the almost flippant, matter-of-fact way two slaves talked about how they had been lost by a previous owner in a bet and how all slaves had been implanted with a transmitter bomb that would explode if the slave tried to escape; killing them in almost an instant.

The standard fifteen year old was forcefully escorted out of a gathering at the Imperial Palace by her father after she insulted Senator Domhnall Tronfo and his staff. Rumor has it that she likened the senator from the Gnó Sector to the Trade Federation and the Techno Union.

Some senators and other governmental officials have stated yet again that they dread the day when Lady Vader assumes the Imperial Throne. ‘She is too quick to insult or anger. She needs experience and some tact before she is ready to lead the Empire.’ Senator Tam’erah Su told us.

Senator Tridad Khent in the past has referred to Lady Vader as a military brat with no political training. He stands by his comments and says quote: ‘the girl needs a serious attitude overhaul and in depth, intensive political lessons now and not whenever our esteemed Emperor and her father agree that she needs them.’

Lady Vader does have an unexpected ally though in the form of Senator Mon Mothma. The highly experienced senator stated that Lady Vader is still young and has plenty of time to mature and learn. ‘She is highly intelligent and if all goes well she will not become the empress for several decades; more than enough time for her to become tempered and learn how to lead the Empire in a befitting way.’ The Senator from Chandrila reasoned elegantly. Some have claimed that Senator Mothma only said this to boost her standing in the eyes of the Emperor and various Imperial Officials to help her appear more open to the Empire she doesn’t care for.

Luke sighed in some exasperation to have opened an article that felt more like piece of gossip than real news.

After checking the list of articles he selected a holo recording linked to GalVid and silently prayed that it would actually have some meaningful information in it.

“The news of the Death Star broke just hours ago and what it was capable of.” A male Mirialan stated calmly though his face showed his angry confusion. “Citizens have started asking questions: is the destruction of Alderaan and consequently its entire system slowly falling into chaos as the beginning of tyranny from the Empire or just the move of one zealot in the name of securing peace in the galaxy?

“We have spoken to several officials in the Imperial Military and nearly all of them denied knowledge of the Death Star. A few admitted knowing about it but told us that it would have been used against the Rebellion and not civilian targets. One of them even stated that Governor Tarkin could be over zealous when it came to putting down threats to the safety of the Empire.

“We even managed to get a statement from Lord Vader who stated that the late Governor was over zealous about threats to the Empire and made a critical error in judgement. Lord Vader added that if Alderaan hadn’t been destroyed then more than half of the planetary government would have been arrested, charged with treason, found guilty of aiding and abetting the Rebellion and then executed for their crimes.

“We have been told that young Princess Ana Organa, the adopted daughter of Queen Breha and Viceroy Bail Organa (formerly Antilles), is a member of the Rebellion and was outed when she made the decision to fire on an Imperial Star Destroyer after being asked to stop after being spotted at the edge of a space battle between Imperial and Rebel Forces. The Alderaanian Princess then had her ship exchange fire with the Star Destroyer and ignored the dozens of communications telling them to cease firing on the Imperial Vessel before being stopped and boarded where she ordered her troops to open fire on anyone that entered her ship. We have been told she was freed from an Imperial facility by Rebel Sympathizers.

“We reached out to Lady Vader and asked she reacted when she learned that Princess Ana, a longtime friend, was a traitor. She responded that she was the one that arrested the young woman and said she wasn’t surprised since more than once it was obvious that Princess Ana idolized the Galactic Republic and would have loved to be part of it.

“She also corrected us on the nature of her relationship with Princess Ana Organa. When Princess Ana was visiting her father on Coruscant Lady Vader would keep her company when both of their fathers were in meetings with the Emperor together. They would sometimes do things together but they were never friends.”

Luke huffed in frustration as he closed out of the recording. It was just a commentary about the Death Star with some comments that were made by Lady Vader.

For a few minutes, he looked at holopics of Lady Vader that were either official, taken by paparazzi, stills from holorecordings and supposed holopics of her. He had to admit that her features were well hidden by the hood and that face veil she wore.

He paused when he came to an age progression holopic of Lady Vader. It showed a little girl with big brown eyes with long medium brown hair in an odd hairstyle that a notation called Gungan Ears and a simple golden brown dress with flowers embroidered on the collar, along the sleeves, along the waist and hem. Next to it was a young woman with her hair in the same style wearing a simple gray tunic and matching military trousers and black military boots. He notice that the woman bore a striking resemblance to Angel and he wondered if some desperate holonews journalist had just taken some holopics of a young Angel at the Imperial Compound and passed them off as some lucky pics of Lady Vader when she was a child.

“You seem to have excellent range of motion with your injured hand.” The medical droid commented. “I project that you should be cleared for duty in a few days if nothing delays your recovery.”

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Theed, Naboo . . .

Obi-Wan had never believed that Vader would learn the truth about Luke let alone that he would reveal it to Luke.

He had debated appearing to Luke and explaining everything but Luke was in company of trained Force Users and surrounded by security cams that would pick up on the fact he appeared to be talking to thin air.

He didn’t feel he could handle the anger and possible rage that might accompany his appearance. The look of betrayal and the hurt and the voice tinged with pain and confusion.

Besides, learning about the woman that had rescued Luke yesterday was more important; he knew nothing about her besides that she was apparently one of the Empire’s Elite but he couldn’t understand why she had been near Bespin or why she hadn’t taken Luke, a wanted Rebel to the nearest Imperial Base or ship. If he hadn’t known any better he would have said she wanted to get to know Luke better and that she had questions that she believed only Luke could answer.

He had almost followed her to her family’s house the night before, knowing that so many of his questions could be answered there but worry that she would Sense him had kept him away.

Today though he knew that she would have her guard lowered and that he could still learn important things.

She had a big head start on him since he had gotten distracted and he didn’t know where the girl who called herself ‘Angel’ liked to go here on Naboo. Qui-Gon had been talking to him about Lady Vader and how she would be willing to open peace talks with the Rebellion.

That was almost laughable that someone that Vader had to be grooming to follow in his footsteps would want to make peace with the Rebellion and truly want peace.

He had been curious about her though and had tried to visit her but she had been meditating and alerted security to the presence of an intruder.

After several hours of searching he found Angel sitting on a stone railing by the Solleu River about ten meters from the Virdugo Plunge. She was holding a multi petal flower in one hand and with the other she was plucking the petals and dropping them in the river; next to her on the railing was a good sized pile of the same kind of flower.

“There you are Angel,” a woman’s voice called out. “I got us some lunch.” Angel turned to the red haired woman who had helped her with Luke. She held some take-out containers from a restaurant in some sort of clear bag.

“Have you ever wondered Mara how your life might have turned out if your father hadn’t abandoned you?” Angel asked Mara as she tossed the now petal less flower into the Solleu River.

Mara’s face hardened and her Force Presence roiled in cold fury.

Obi-Wan moved a little closer to them, wanting to hear their conversation.

“You know how many Jedi viewed relationships and love. They could sleep around as much as they wanted as long as they didn’t form attachments to them. My father was no different from them. The moment my mother told him about me he decided to abandon her because he refused to become attached to us. He was just using her and she was blinded by her belief that he loved her.” Mara spat.

“What brought this on?” She asked Angel once she calmed down.

Obi-Wan could Feel Mara’s anger burning white hot in the Force while Angel was radiating sorrow, anger and pensiveness in the Force. “I was thinking about my mother and something that came up recently that has made me wonder what some things would have been like if other things hadn’t happened.” Angel answered as she picked up another flower and began to divest it of its petals.

“Were you ever jealous of me Angel? You lost your mother and have only the vaguest memories of her and I had my mother until she died seven years ago. I know and remember what it was like to be held by her and feel her hands stroking my face. She tucked me in when she could and told me stories. She took me on walks and taught me to be proud of my heritage until I went to live in the Imperial Palace Complex.” Mara asked as she took a seat on the stone railing near Angel.

“I wasn’t jealous of you Mara, not at first. I was use to the absence of my mother. My father and her family were always willing to tell me all about her if I asked them. When you started to tell me about your mother and everything she did with you. At first I told myself that my father did all of that with me and so much more but then I became envious that you had your mother in your life and wished mine was still alive and able to tell me those stories for herself.”

Angel paused and tears filled her brown eyes. “My father loves her so much still but he is blind to her faults and so are her parents. My mother did so little wrong in their eyes besides maybe getting involved with my father but they like him well enough. I used to worship her but then I went to that stupid school here and the teachers tried to bend me to their vision of perfection. I couldn’t allow them to lie to those boys and girls anymore. They were trying to brainwash all of them into believing that no one had ulterior motives or that everyone followed the laws of the Empire and if anyone broke those laws the Senate would punish them for their misdeeds. So I stood up and called them out for their lies and reminded those koochoos of the recent history of this planet, the Clone Wars and other injustices in the galaxy. The children started crying when I told them of the corruption that existed in the Senate and still did. I told them that it was their responsibility to live by the laws of Naboo and the Empire and not to expect that just because they were obeying the laws that everyone was.”

Obi-Wan could Feel Mara’s anger drain away as she listened to her friend’s tirade. “That’s when you refused to sit through anymore political lessons. You were tired of listening to the teachers lie to you about the state of the galaxy and favored accompanying your father on his assignments.” Mara commented gently. “I will say that everyone but me was glad that you weren’t in as many of our classes.”

“I’m sure that Roganda, Galen and Jaller were happy to see less of me and-” Angel suddenly broke off mid word and her brown eyes swept the area while the Force rippled as she searched for something; him

“What is it?” Mara asked as she joined in the search.

“I am sure I Felt a trained Force Sensitive nearby.” Angel answered as her left hand drifted towards what Obi-Wan guessed was a concealed lightsaber.

Mara’s eyes closed and she too started to move a hand to her concealed lightsaber.

Cursing Obi-Wan disappeared from Naboo and its sun filled streets before the two young women could find him.

He had a lot to think about after hearing their conversation. He had known about the Empire’s Elite but he had assumed that once they were taken from their families that they never spoke to them again; not too different than how the Jedi Order had operated. Now though he knew that at least two of them had been allowed to keep in contact with them.

Something niggled at the back of his mind as he thought of what Angel had told Mara. Her mother’s family was from Naboo, they hadn’t approved of their daughter getting involved with Angel’s father and she was a politician. If he didn’t know for a fact that Leia was dead he would be suspicious of Angel being Leia.

Mara wasn’t too far off the mark when she reminded Angel of the way the Jedi Order viewed brief encounters. However, the Jedi had more control then she implied. It was disturbing though to think that her Jedi father had abandoned her mother to whatever fate awaited those that knowingly harbored Jedi and his child to possibly being raised as an agent of evil.

xxxxxxxxxx

The second the Presence vanished in the Force Mara was retrieving her commlink to report what she and Angel had Felt.

“Theed Barracks, this is Mara Jade: Identification Number EE-SE09-06031991. I am advising all units to the presence of a trained Force User along the Solleu River near the vicinity the Virdugo Plunge. Do not engage them if spotted. Report immediately to me or EE-IH02-10217756 and allow us room to deal with them. Inform all local security personnel as well.”

“EE-SE09-631991, grid searches will commence immediately. Do you have a description of them?” The communications officer asked.

“Negative officer, check all identifications, record all encounters and exercise extreme caution.”

“Understood madam, Theed Barracks out,” the officer said

“Head back and I will trail you at a distance and see if the one spying on us returns.” Angel whispered to her.

Cautiously Mara turned, slipped off the stone railing, retrieved the food and with her lightsaber hidden in her sleeve she started a circular route to the Medical Center.

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Theed Medical Center . . .

Slowly scrolling through the article names on the datapad screen one name caught Luke’s attention: Lady Vader and Governor Tarkin Never Liked Each Other. He knew all about the two’s dislike for each other from both the Rebellion and reading the news articles but something, perhaps the Force encouraged him to open it.

Almost immediately a popular song about rivalries began to play and a quick holo recording of a little girl dressed in a black cloak attempting to kick Governor Tarkin in the shins. The next clip showed a man dressed as Lockesher Holme getting a drink spilled on him by either a child or a short alien dressed as Eshe from Wylla and Friends, Holme hurrying after Eshe through the crowd and to a man dressed perfectly as Torg the caretaker of the animals and children, lowered helmet visor and hint of cybernetic left arm, with Eshe on his back. The next clip showed Tarkin at some sort of party or gathering having a conversation with different beings when suddenly everyone clamped hands over their ears or what passed for ears and the view panned to show Lady Vader with what appeared to be a broken datapad and a devious gleam in her eyes. More clips went by showing Lady Vader and Governor Tarkin having some sort of run-in. The last clip showed a woman with dark brown hair in some sort of headdress and a simple but fancy dress arguing with a man that was Tarkin but not dressed in his usual uniform. Beside the woman was a man dressed as Anakin Skywalker with a highly amused expression on his face. The vid ended with a transition to black and a list of dates and events.

At the end of the list it was noted that there was a dispute whether or not the woman dressed as Senator Amidala was Lady Vader. This ranged from the fact that the man that accompanied her was dressed as Anakin Skywalker, a Jedi, to the fact that Padme Amidala was one of those brainwashed, naive individuals that Lady Vader denounced vehemently. Those that supported the woman being Lady Vader stated that what the woman said to Tarkin was pure Lady Vader down to her body language. There was even the claim that Tarkin had said something about the woman and her partner’s choice in costume and wasn’t it hypocritical of her to dress as Senator Amidala and have her date dress as Anakin Skywalker: a Jedi; not to mention there were rumors that the pair had been involved in an illicit relationship. The woman did agree that Senator Amidala fit the description of the kind of politicians she despised but that illicit relationship was probably the best choice she could have made then promptly kissed her date. However even they were hard pressed to explain why she had chosen the costumes or why she would have made such an odd comment.

Luke almost dropped the datapad when he read about the supposed illicit relationship Senator Padme Amidala had with his father.

A sharp ripple of fear, anger and concern suddenly rippled through the Force. Startled Luke dropped the datapad and got himself into a position that would allow him to defend himself if someone undesirable came through the door.

The Presence came closer and slowly the fear and anger dried away, or became hidden behind stronger Shields leaving only the concern to waft through the Force.

The door to the suite opened and Mara slid in; holding a bag that smelled good.

“I brought lunch and Angel is going to join us shortly.” Mara told him as she closed the door behind her. “I didn’t know what you would like so I ordered a little of everything they offered and we can have a free-for-all.”

Luke smiled a bit as he remembered his few friends on Tatooine and how sometimes for lunch they would bring different food from home and share it as a group after a day of racing. His throat tightened as he thought of Biggs, Tank, Camie, Fixer and the others he would hang out with.

“You’re lucky to have had such good friends growing up. I had only Angel growing up and she will tell you the same thing even if it’s not the complete truth.” Mara told him.

“The chief medical droid here says I should be ready to leave in a couple of days.” He informed her.

“That’s good,” she said with a smile.

Within ten minutes he could Sense Angel approaching the suite. He could Feel that she was on high alert.

“Did something happen?” he asked Mara.

“Yes, but I think Angel wants to tell you about it.” Mara answered.

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Thank you for reading, please leave a review and tell me your thoughts and how I might be able to improve.